CMA provisionally finds 5 banks broke competition law on UK bonds

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has provisionally found that 5 major banks – Citi, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Morgan Stanley and Royal Bank of Canada – each unlawfully shared competitively sensitive information by participating in one or more series of one-to-one conversations in chatrooms.

The CMA’s findings are provisional. Deutsche Bank and Citi have admitted to participating in the alleged one-to-one conversations that apply to them. HSBC, Morgan Stanley and Royal Bank of Canada have not admitted any wrongdoing. At this stage, no assumption should be made that any of the banks have broken the law.